Textile materials are produced from fibers (finite lengths) and filaments (continuous lengths) by a variety of processes to form woven, knitted and nonwoven fabrics, which can be used in household textiles and a variety of industrial applications. There are a number of wet processing steps, such as scouring, dyeing/printing, and finishing in the production of textile materials. Surfactants are commonly used in the processing steps to provide various functions including, for instance, softening, defoaming, and cleaning.
To be effective, the surfactants for use in textile production should exhibit certain characteristics, such as, wetting/penetrating performance; low foaming behavior, particularly in textile dyeing and printing steps; cleaning efficiency; and easy handling, such as being of low pour point, non-gelling, and fast dissolving.
The scouring process in textile production refers to the removal of sizing materials, lubricants and other impurities which are contained in and/or adhere to the fibers during their formation. These various impurities must be removed so that the textile fibers may be further processed. Scouring is performed under extremely alkaline conditions using high concentration of caustic soda, and at high temperatures. Surfactants for use in the scouring step, therefore, should exhibit alkaline stability. Surfactants that exhibit alkaline stability would help the textile manufacturer minimize the numbers and types of surfactant they need to stock.
While alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEs) are widely recognized as good surfactants in a broad variety of applications, they do suffer from a poor public perception of their environmental compatibility. Previously contemplated APE-replacement surfactants, however, generally may have good performance profiles in a select few applications, but not in other applications. In addition, the replacements may be biodegradable, but not environmentally acceptable, or vice versa, or they may not be stable in strongly alkaline environments.
Thus, next generation surfactants for textile processing should be stable over a wide pH range, should exhibit a favorable environmental profile, and should be broadly useable, including in the various steps involved in textile processing.